What the Lady Wants Read online

  Carlo and Mitch both froze.

  "He almost killed Mae?" Gio turned his little obsidian eyes on Carlo. "What did you do?"

  "Nothin'." Carlo stuck out his jaw. "He's lying. I wouldn't hurt Mae. Ever."

  "You couldn't see her," Mitch said. "That night at the storage shed, you were shooting at her not me. You came within an inch of killing her, you moron."

  "Is this true?" Gio's eyes impaled his grandson. "Did you do this thing?"

  "I shot at him." Carlo's face was mulish. "I never shot at Mae."

  "He missed her by a couple of inches," Mitch told Gio. "He thought he was shooting at me because she was wearing my jacket, but he almost killed her." He shook his head. "You know, giving him a gun is not a good idea."

  "No more guns," Gio said to Carlo who glared at Mitch. "I want them all."

  "You might want to take the knives away from him, too," Mitch suggested. "There was that incident with the finger...."

  "You stay out of this," Gio snapped, and Mitch said, "No."

  Gio surged up out of his desk chair. "Nobody says no to me—"

  "Well, they do now," Mitch told him. "I've had it with all three of you. Who do you think you are, anyway? All of you, yapping away about how you want to protect Mae, and then you do everything you can to get her arrested or, God knows, killed. The police are after her, a murderer is on the loose and you take out the only guy who's protecting her." He jerked his thumb at his chest. "Me."

  Claud stirred in his chair. "There is no murderer, and we know about the police. We've retained a lawyer. Now, if you'll—"

  "She doesn't need your lawyer," Mitch said, exasperated. "I got her a lawyer. She's got everything she needs except me, and the only reason I'm not with her is because you guys think you're in a Godfather movie."

  "She doesn't need your cheap shyster," Gio began.

  Mitch turned on him. "He's not cheap. He's going to cost you a friggin' fortune. I was going to cover it, but after this last trick you pulled, he's going to bill you."

  Claud narrowed his eyes, which made them essentially disappear. "And why would we pay for this lawyer?"

  "Because I finally figured out what the hell was going on here," Mitch said. "And you are in deep trouble, all of you."

  "Where is Mae Belle?" Gio demanded.

  Mitch felt his temper hit boiling and tried hard to keep the lid on it. "Well, she was at my place, but knowing Mabel, she's hit the road by now, so I have no idea where she is, and that's your fault, too, Grandpa, so don't hassle me about it. You know, I could have figured out this whole thing a lot sooner if you hadn't been playing your dumb Master of the Universe games."

  "Aside from Carlo's assaults, there is nothing—"

  Mitch swung around to glare down at him. "Oh, no you don't, Claud. You're in this as deep as he is. You should never have messed with my credit, Claud. Bad move."

  "What credit?" Gio scowled. "Who gives a damn about your credit? I want—"

  "Forget it." Mitch leaned over the edge of the desk and stared him down. "What you want doesn't matter anymore. Mae's been arrested for murder, which means somebody actually did kill Armand."

  "Nonsense." Claud dismissed him without a flicker of emotion. "You're just protecting your job."

  Mitch took a deep breath. "Claud, pay attention here. The police arrested Mae. They don't do that because they're bored. They do that because they think they can get a conviction. If there was any doubt at all that Armand had been murdered, they wouldn't be arresting Mae. Trust me on this."

  Claud stared at him as if Mitch had crawled out from under a rock, but he didn't say anything.

  "I was pulling for you three as the killers because I could spare all of you without too much trouble. But I couldn't make it work." Mitch glared down at Carlo. "Carlo was stupid enough to slash my tires—" Carlo growled and Mitch braced himself for another punch "—but he wasn't smart enough or rich enough or connected enough to get me evicted from my office." Carlo stayed put, and Mitch turned to Claud. "Claud could get me evicted, but he wouldn't threaten my clients with physical danger." Mitch then faced the apoplectic little man behind the desk. "And Gio would threaten his own mother, but he wouldn't bother with shooting my car. I liked the idea that the three of you were in this together, but Mae said no, and eventually even I couldn't see any of you trusting the others with cab fare, let alone a murder plot."

  "I don't get this, and I don't care," Gio said. "I want—"

  "Then Mae was arrested and somebody killed my credit. And right there at the ATM, the solution hit me. And then fifteen seconds later, Carlo hit me." Suddenly overcome by disappointment, Mitch stared at Carlo. "You will never know how much I wanted you to be the bad guy in this. Ohio has the death penalty, you know."

  "Mr. Peatwick, we're really uninterested in your credit rating," Claud said. "We want—"

  "Then why did you kill it, Claud? I should be grateful because that's what made me finally catch on. I mean, two nights ago, somebody tries to shoot us, and that doesn't work, so somebody gets Mae arrested for murder, and that doesn't work, so then this guy escalates the battle and goes after my credit card?" Mitch shook his head. "I know your Dun and Brad-street is more important to you than your prostate, but even you must have figured out that losing my credit card would run a poor second to getting shot. That's when I knew I was dealing with more than one loon."

  "Do you realize to whom you are speaking?" Claud asked him coldly.

  "Yeah." Mitch stared him down, just as coldly. "I'm talking to the guy who ruined my credit rating. That would be you, and that's illegal. Financial harassment. I discussed this with my attorney when you had me evicted, and he says it should be an interesting lawsuit."

  Claud dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "No attorney would touch a lawsuit like that."

  "Mine would. He likes Bolivian tin mines and redheaded radicals. He lives for risk."

  "Some ambulance chaser." Claud chuckled derisively. It sounded like a death rattle. "Some nobody."

  "Nick Jamieson." Mitch watched the smile fade from Claud's face. "Yeah, he's good, isn't he? Well, look on the bright side, he's defending Mabel, too."

  "How do you know Nick Jamieson?" Claud demanded.

  "I'm his stockbroker." Mitch watched Claud blink as he absorbed the information and then Mitch turned to Gio. "Then there's you. Threatening my clients, harassing my landlord, making nasty phone calls. You ought to be ashamed. Especially since the cops would love to get something on you. You really screwed up this time, Gio.

  "And then there's my personal favorite, the bottom feeder in your gene pool." He turned to glare at Carlo. "You owe me twelve new tires, new seats, all new windshields and lights, and a hell of a lot of bodywork. I can't believe you beat up my car like that."

  Gio pounded on his desk. "Will you forget that damn car? I don't care about the car. I will pay for the car, and this lawyer, and anything else. Just tell me, where the hell is Mae Belle?"

  "I don't know, Gio." Mitch stood up straight again. "My guess is, she's gone to see the murderer. I'm a little concerned about that. And that's why I'm leaving now."

  Carlo blocked his way. "You're not going anywhere."

  Mitch faced him. "I will go around you, over you, or through you, whatever it takes. But I am going to Mae."

  And then he walked toward Carlo and the door.

  Mae let herself in the front door of the town house at the same time that Stormy came down the stairs carrying a suitcase.

  They both stopped, surprised.

  "I was just going to call you." Mae eyed the suitcase. "Going somewhere?"

  "South America. I just came by for my passport." Stormy put the suitcase down, frowning as if she'd had a sudden thought. "I thought you'd been arrested."

  "Now, why would you think that?" Mae tossed her purse on the table.

  Stormy blinked. "I heard it on the radio."

  "No, you didn't. We've had the radio on all morning. No escaped socialites." Mae sat on the